23rd issue of "Kolekcja wozów bojowych" will describe in detail German armoured car Sd.Kfz. 231 and its deveratives. Ready-made diecast model of this vehicle (in two color camouflage from September 1939) will be bundled with the magazine.

I've raised from the dead first unit of skeletons. It is 27 miniatures strong with command group, so 3 next skeletons awaits to be painted right now. 30 miniatures is minimal number for a unit to use special "horde" rule from WFB 8. edition, allowing to fight with 3 ranks. Ready unit will be 40 skeletons strong. Army book lists them as lightly armoured but my skeletons don't have any armour. They are made ages ago when armour was optional so I hope my opponents won't mind that. Commander of this unit is old wight, one of the wights I've already mentioned here. Standard bearer and musician are very old too, they were the only miniatures of its kind when I started my WFB adventure. Another metal musician and standard bearer were available from mid nineties but as I didn't like them I still used old ones. They look old-school now, that's true, especially standard bearer, but he will remain in the unit for time being, until I will paint a new one, made from new plastic sprue. Standard bearer was extensively repainted, with only bones being left as they were. Since I will probably change this miniature, standard itself is hardly work of art. I tried to paint it as an ethereal, wispy shadow of banner. Final effect is ok I think. Two other old standard bearers will be repainted in similar way. Wight got new wight blade and new cowl, musician was slightly retouched. All shields were heavily repainted, all skeletons were retouched where necessary, especially bones. Bases were made from the very beginning.

Only two links today as I didn't really had much time to search the net this week, and nothing really spectacular came to my attention. First link leads to gallery of photos taken during demo game at this year Crisis convenction in Antwerp. Game was named "Rescue in Grozny", 28 mm scale, Red Star Miniatures were used. Pictures are slightly photoshopped - bases are removed, still they show how the demo game should really look loke. Picture above is taken from this gallery.

Second link is here - it is a page with short skirmish game set in The Witcher universe. Game is available for downloading there - in French. Well, it severely diminishes it's usefulness to me but maybe there are some readers fluent in Molier's language here. After using googletranslate-fu game seems to be fast paced, just right kind for a lunch-break.

Sorry guys, I'm so tired that there is no English translation this time. It is a note about first DBA tournament of new season of Polish DBA league. I was beated three times, one victory (barely, but still). My army was Alexandrian Imperial and I know now that it's combined arms tactic IS hard and unforgiving for novice general:) But whole tournament was great, organisation was perfect and I eagerly await next one.

I'm still weaving my spell of undead rising. So far to call of his master in darkness responded mounted vampire, one of the mounted wights, about dozen of skeletons, banshee, unit of dire wolves and some other creatures. Every one of these miniatures was carefully looked at, minor corrections of paint scratches (fortunately almost non existent) were done, base was changed to better looking one, and I've made verification of colors used. Most of figures got "something" to unite it with the rest of the army, "something" being a part painted in dark red or deep purple. I decided - against to my preliminary thoughts - to use these colors as army colors, not a cold blue. All skeletons got new shields (well, new paint on the shields), I overpainted most of them too. Next to be raised are more skeletons, recently painted mounted wight lord, next wights... I'm rather glad from the progress so far, it is fast due to not so many miniatures needed to be repainted. All hard work will begin with characters, I'm afraid...

Test skeletons. I checked if the washes will settle down on heavily gloss coated miniatures (yes, they do), repainted some bones, painted new shields, few touches here, few touches of brush there... Base are taking a really long time to do unfortunately, still they are looking nice I think. Another dozen or so skeletons are ready.

I already written about Force on Force rules being published by Osprey. There are more information available now. Rulebook will have Force on Force title, it will be published in April 2001. 176 pages long, hardback, full color. Inside there will be rules known from FoF published by Ambush Alley Games and rules from Ambush Alley game, so it will be possible to recreate every armed conflict from post IIWW era till modern days. All data and rules pertraining to IIWW will be removed as game aimed specifically at this conflict is being in the works. Rules will be streamlined, some of them will be rewritten to be easier to understand. Together with main rulebook there will be first supplement published, titled "Road to Baghadad". It will cover American invasion on Iraq from 2003. Inside there will be additional rules, OoB for American, British, Australian, Canadian, Polish and Iraqui forces and game data for many vehicles. Set of "Fog of War" cards will be added to the book. Both of these books are "must have" for myself.

A weekly miniature from my brother, Mormeg, collection. An old dryad this time, from the army of Wood Elves. I like the painting very much but new, plastic dryads are much better in my opinion. The old ones are resembling treemen too much... They do have a charm of its own but they are not classic dryads, that's for sure. Matt finish on the miniature is a light coat of Army Painter matt spray - I had to matt whole miniature as it was protected by durable coat of very shiny lacquer.

Next element of 4Bd to my viking army is ready. This time they represent the most "typical" vikings. Armed with axex (much cheaper then swords thus available to even poorer men), shields, wearing no armour norsemen barbarians, ready to go a viking, to raid and plunder. For Odin's and Thor's glory, for wealth and loot, for immortality in sagas.

Weekly wargaming links leading to something cool or just useful - for myself at least. As a first link to a webpage with napoleonic uniforms - divided by nationality, units, ranks, etc. Some units are missing but existing ones are done very well, with clean and very precise drawings and they are immensely helpful while painting miniatures from this fascinating period.

Second link will take us to a railroad modelling site - "How tos" presented there are top notch quality, very realistic and very good looking - to a point where it is really hard to tell if the picture shows model or real building. Link thanks to AWu from Strategie forum. (Picture next to this note is taken from this site).

One of the ugliest
Games Workshop miniatures ever produced. Miniature considered old school
now - still new for myself. Soon after it had hit the market my
interest with WFB gradually lowered and my Undead army went, nicely
packaged, to the dark corner of my flat. In the meantime WFB got two or
three new editions, Undeads were divided into two different armies, new
miniatures came in hundreds. Wight Lord awaited for painting - since
being cleaned and mount being glued - for about 10 years. His time came
yesterday. It was painted as a kind of test miniature. I will confess -
I've got a WFB fever again. Better said - not again, as one infected
with WFB disease is infected for life, virus just lies dormant,
sometimes for decades. I decided to slowly rebuild my undead army, this
time as Vampire Counts. Wight Lord is my test miniature, to check new
colors new basing scheme. I don't know if it is sensible to write about
rising again my deads here, on this blog... Maybe I should start another
one, dedicated to this project? Rising an army as old as mine needs a
lot of time... Large part of it needs to be repainted, all shields will
have to be exchanged, all bases need to be redone, I would have to paint
many new miniatures... Well, time will see...

Somewhere deep in the soul of my brother must be hidden a hint of shadow and darkness - his chosen force for LOTR game is Mordor. Yes... Yes - not elves. Well, difference is marginal anyway, as ears are very similar.

Base of this miniature is not finished yet but I like painting of this figure very much. I don't really know why... Maybe that leather armour, maybe face full of savagery and cruelty or maybe simple yet effective banner. Miniature itself is very nice too, as most from the LOTR range...

22nd. issue of "Kolekcja wozów bojowych" will describe history of American halfracks, description of construction of M2/M3 vehicles and theirs combat usage. Ready-made diecast model of MGMC M16 will be bundled with magazine.

I managed to paint this element on Sunday and based it today. It is second 4Bd element of III/40b army. Both this and previous unit were painted slightly differently then usual. I use washes on every part of figure usually, be it a leather jerkin, woolen leggins or metallic helmets. This time washes were used sparingly, only to deepen some shadows. Miniature looks "cleaner" and brighter thanks to it and a little better too I think. Shields of vikings are a real joy to paint for me. They are both relatively simple and attractive. One of them has "blood" splashes painted on. I'm not really satisfied with final look of these but good painting of blood is rather hard. I'm glad how the cloak turned out. Simple, bright highlights, sparingly used washing and this part of miniature looks good.

There is one thing I dislike in Baueda's miniatures. Most of the figures have weapons very close to the bodies - swords and axes are bent in "C" shape (viewed from above). I know that this is mould restriction still it looks bad.

Weekly links to something wargamingly cool. First leads to new free skirmish rules, set in Arthurian, postroman Britain. It looks really nice, I read them once so far and I think they have a chance for some popularity. Author - Endakil (Victor Gondra) is really good painter too, you can see some of his miniatures painted for this projects on his blog too. You can find there links to color and printer friendly versions of his rules - "Brytenwalda". Photo next to this note is taken from his blog. It is worth to mention that this pdf rulebook has really nice layout too.

Second link leads to a webpage dedicated fully to Blood Bowl game - original, not computer one.Author put there photos of almost every miniature made for this game. If You are looking for something positively crazy, that's it! Third and fourth links show how good wargame should look like. First shows some photos from Waterloo game, second from battle of Vimiero - both Napoleonics of course. 28 mm scale, terrain, miniatures, size - they are just great.

One of my favourite historical periods, for a long time, are crusades. Starting my DBA adventure I was certain that sooner or later one of my armies will be one of the forces from this era. Since my brother is interested in crusades too, it was only matter of choosing matching forces. First we agreed on specific DBA period - Late Crusades. My brother chose crusaders, so I went for an opponent, choosing army of great Saladin - Ayyubid Egyptians. Producer of choice was Italian Mirlition. We placed an order, waited for about 3 weeks and finally got it. Package was huge - about four times bigger then boxes with miniatures inside, but it was well protected and our figures came intact. Ready made Mirliton DBA army boxes are packed in durable, hard cardboard boxes with full color illustrations at the front and back. Back illustration is a kind of painting guide and contains full listing of miniatures inside with appropriate DBA names. According to producer box contains: 3 cavalry miniatures (general element), 15 ghulam knights, 6 horse archers, 4 spearmen, 8 bow- and crossbowmen, 4 javelinmen and 3 foot command figures (Ax element in DBA). After comparision with current DBA IV/20 army there are some options missing. One can certainly use 3 foot command miniatures as 3Ax element or 3Wb (as they are both excluding themselves) but unfortunately there is no 7Hd option (4Sp of 4 spearmen are superfluous). It is, of course, entirely possible to use spearmen miniatures to make 3Wb element, as producer suggests.

All miniatures are packed in foil bags. Box is not padded in any way but as it is not that big and there is plenty of miniatures they are tightly packed, so risk of them being damaged is minimal.

Many miniatures are casted with separate weapons and shields. Unfortunately, both of my crossbowmen miniatures are lacking xbows - will have to make them by myself. All weapons and shields are very nicely cast, with crisp and clean details. It is clearly visible that some pikes are made from bamboo for example. Miniatures are excellent. They have a lot of details, with very clean, deep sculpt, poses are natural, good looking and variable. Some of the riders are casted in two parts, legs and torso separately. It looks like a lot of gluing but I'm sure ready miniatures will look great. Arms, weapons and all other equipment - as shields and quivers - look correct, exactly like in "Armies and Enemies of the Crusade 1096-1291" published by Wargames Research Group.

Ghulam knights - 10 poses, one rider has separate torso and legs (it looks like a commander). There are 3 miniatures of the same pose, two miniatures with another pose, two next miniatures with yet another, rest is one miniature/pose per pack. Horses are: two in chainmail armour (same pose), two in barding (same pose), two in scale armour (same pose), rest of the horses has no armour, 2 per pose, single horse has yet another pose.

Light Horse - 6 horses in 4 poses (two have different poses, two next poses are shared between 4 horses). 5 bowmen with separate torsos and legs, 4 poses of torses, 3 legs are the same, 2 are different. One rider is casted as a one-piece, he lacks any weapon.